The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-01-01

on the table, and rested her cheek IN
her kand, while she searched the back
wears for some fair fruit or flower.
ats Just like Il nut without meat, or
a rose without smell, or like the corn
we raised on the river lot last summer,
great handsome ears, and nothing under
the sun in 'em but little nubs and husks!
That's for all the world the way my life
looks to me. Thirty years and nothing
but husks!'' was the summing up Of the
longest meditation in which she had
ever INDUCED.
"Now, what YOU going to do about it,
RoXana Powell?' was the question one
of her practical, energetic nature would
ask herself next. You cant go on a
mission, nor do any great work as see.
But what is there you can do, right
here, in your own town, to glorify Him,
and prove that YOU do love Him, after
all?'
No Divine suggestion, however, came
to her on this point. She was not
adapted to any kind of work, as far as
she could see, and no door of useful
ness seemed to stand open, All sho
could do was to ask the Lord to forgive
her, and change her hard heart. just
then, her eye fell on Phebe, who had
not gone to bed. but was lying on the
lounge fast asleep. RoNana thought
she seemed paler than usual. Then
she fell to thinking that life had been
rather hard on Phebe.
"'Her hair ought not to be streaked
with gray like that, at thirty-tive. Was
it fifteen years since David Warne was
killed in the great battle? How hard
Phebe took it, and he no relation!
Queer! Phebe had never fitted in,
somehow, to her home; something was
always out of Joint with her notions.
She was made of finer stuff than the
rest of EN- Conscience gave the
elder sister a twinge, just here. What
was the use of her being so ugly and
grumpy to poor Phebe. anyhow They
had had a quarrel almost that very
morning about inviting the minister
and his wife to take New Years dinner
with them. And then she went back
to recollections of Phebe's life-how
she had experienced religion" when
she was a girl, and was about to
unite with the church, when her trouble
came, and then put it off, because she
felt rebellious and wicked, she said;
and it had been put off all these years,
despite many a solemn lecture from
Roxana. And Phebe, when she be-
came very much provoked. said she
"never wanted to be a church member
till she could be a better specimen than
those she saw about her.
"What if it's me she's stumbling
over?' RoXana thought.
She got up then, softly, and threw a
light shawl over her sister, an unwont-
ed attention on her part.
81 s'pose | might try to please her a
little more, poor Phebe,' she said to
herself, stirring the fire into a brighter
blaze, and drawing her chair up near
er. II might put on a collar of a morn
ing, and slick up after dinner, and have
a little company, now and then, and do
lots OF little things she wants me to,
and what's more, / will"
While she still gazed on into the fire,
there came to her n of those sudden,
gracious revealings, the whisper of the
Lord to the soul, and Roxana Powell
knew her work, as plainly as voice or
printed page could tell it. Her stub
born pride gave way, and left her as
humble as a little child. She breathed
her new resolve into His ear, just as
kitchen clock rang out the twelve
strokes which told that the old year had
died.
sob, Lord, | can't do some great
work. amt fit for any work, and it's
too late to learn, and l don't know how
live to Thy glory. l don't know any
thing at all. But by Thy help, l will
do this II thing for Thy sake, to please
Thee. will be kind and loving to my
Phcbe, and, somehow, let it be to
Thy glory"
The touch and the tones that aroused
her sister, a little later, were so soft
and gentle that Phebe sat up bewil-
wondering if she had not walked
up in Heaven. 1t wasn't like Roxana
throw her arms about Phebe, then,
and tell her all she was going to be.
She had talked enough in that old book.
It was time to begin to do. She only
pleasantly:
81 should say you had had a powerful
long nap-went to sleep n year and
woke up the next"
And Phebe rubbed her eyes. and
asked herself why she had never no.
that Roxana was actually hand.